Palestinians condemn Israeli step to advance illegal E1 settlement plan

WEST BANK, Aug 19: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned an Israeli decision to issue a tender for more than 1,200 new housing units in the occupied West Bank under its E1 settlement project.

The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), a PA government body affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), warned in a statement on Tuesday that advancing the plans would lead to the confining of Palestinians in the West Bank to “disconnected enclaves surrounded by settlements”.

Israel’s E1 plan, approved by the government last year, aims to build more than 3,400 housing units on roughly 12sq km (4.6sq miles) of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Israeli settlements and outposts are illegal under international law.

The plan would link thousands of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel has already illegally annexed, to the MaaleAdumim settlement bloc in the West Bank.

This would fully sever East Jerusalem, which Palestinians have long wanted as the capital of their future state, from the West Bank and also would essentially bisect the West Bank.

The submission of bids for the project is due to close on October 19. That is just before elections are scheduled in Israel on October 27, in which Netanyahu and his government are expected to see falling support.

The CRRC said the tender for the 1,200 units should be viewed as a step in the implementation of a broader geopolitical project aimed at reshaping the area between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. 

Al Jazeera correspondent Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Hizma in the West Bank, said if the E1 project were to be realised, it would be the “last nail in the coffin” of the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The E1 project has been already delayed several times by the Israeli government, but now we see it happening on the ground.”�"AL JAZEERA